Monday, 28 April 2014

Many thanks to Mel Comley for inviting me to join this tour. She's an amazing (and bestselling) writer of a fantastic thriller series (The Justice Series). I know because I've read them! Mel is a British author who now lives in France, where she spends her time, other than writing, renovating her house and taking care of her dogs. Visit her on Facebook at: Mel Comley and Friends. If you're on twitter drop her a line. Stop by her blog. Or visit her website.

MY WRITING PROCESS BLOG TOUR

1.) What am I working on?

I'm currently working on the third book of my Spirit Shifters series, Autumn Rising. I'm hoping to have the first draft finished in the next few weeks, and the book should be out by the end of July. Here's the cover which I absolutely love, I hope you do too!

2.) How does my work differ from others in its genre?

This is a really difficult question! I would say it's my combination of romance and horror. My novels are quite graphic, and dark, and intense, but they always have a strong romance theme running through them as well. Sometimes, this makes it difficult for me to categorise my work - is it paranormal romance, or urban fantasy, or dark fantasy, or horror? Sometimes a single book will span all of those categories!

3.) Why do I write what I do?

I've always loved the paranormal, ever since I was a young girl. I grew up as a teenager obsessed with vampires, and so it was only natural that I would write about them one day. I also started my love of reading on a diet of Stephen King, James Herbert, and Dean Koontz, so again, writing paranormal was always going to be in my future.

4.) How does my writing process work?

I'm very much what is known as a 'pantser'. I tend to have a vague idea of a story in my head, and ask myself a few 'what if' questions. I will write character profiles down in my trusty notebook to help build upon them and make them feel more three dimensional to me, but for the most part, as soon as I start writing, they pop up pretty clear in my head. With my series books, I might have a vague idea of how I want a book to finish up, but more often than not, that changes by the end. If I try to plot or plan too far ahead, I find myself getting stuck or overwhelmed. The story will feel too big for me, and I'll start to worry I'm going to be able to pull it off. If I just start writing, and not think too much more than a couple of chapters ahead, then the words tend to flow. If I get stuck, I'll simply jump a chapter or two, and write whichever scene in currently speaking to me the loudest at that time. Of course, this does mean that my first drafts are extremely messy, and I have to spend a lot of time going back and reworking things!

WHO IS NEXT?

The next person on the tour is the fabulous Belinda Frisch. Belinda is the author of a number of novels, including the gruesome 'Cure' zombie series! But she has recently been branching out into the world of romantic suspense with her novel Fatal Reaction.After fifteen years of working in healthcare, Belinda Frisch's stories can't help being medicine influenced. A writer of dark tales in the horror, mystery, and thriller genres, she is a storyteller at heart, and has been writing since her teens. Her fiction has appeared in Shroud Magazine, Dabblestone Horror, and Tales of Zombie War. She is an honorable mention winner in the Writer's Digest 76th Annual Writing Competition. Her novel, Cure, is the runner-up in the General Fiction category of the 2012 Halloween Book Festival and was optioned for film. She is the author of Better Left Buried, Fatal Reaction, Cure, and Afterbirth, in addition to a number of short stories. She resides in upstate New York with her husband, son, and a small menagerie of beloved animals.

She'll be posting her writing process this time next week, on May 5th, over on her blog! You can also find her on her facebook page and twitter!

Tuesday, 22 April 2014

Every author is told that they need to build an author platform, and they need to have done so yesterday! Platforms can be built via blogging (just like this!), or using social network sites such as Facebook, twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, and any number of others. It's impossible for an author to successfully manage all of these and still find time to write, so it's best to select a couple and be as present on those as possible.

For me, Facebook has been the platform of choice. I spend a lot of time of Facebook, not just working, but staying up to date with the lives of my family and friends.

There have been a lot of mutterings lately about how Facebook has changed the reach of posts to people who have liked pages. The idea is that Facebook reduces the reach in order to get the owners of the page to pay to get the post out to those who have already liked the page. This can be done via 'boosting' a post, which can cost anywhere from £1 to £90, depending on how many people you want to reach! The trouble is that the 'reach' Facebook promises you is only an estimate and can be wildly out in its numbers. I am a fairly regular user of Facebook. It's been my method of choice to communicate with friends and readers alike. because of this, I have used both their advert option, together with 'boosting' a post, and then simply posting as normal. Last week, I launched my new novel, The Sound of Crickets, and so ran an advert, together with boosting a post. But something I noticed was that when I went to write my normal posts, all of a sudden, no one was seeing them. When I say no one, I'm talking about 80 people from my approximately 3500 likers! My first instinct was that Facebook wasn't showing my posts to people because they already had my money! So I cancelled my boosted post, and numbers of my regular post went up slightly, to around 300 likers.

One thing I have noticed is that if you can post something your readers can get involved with, naturally, more people will see it. One of my biggest reach posts lately have been about naming a character in one of my books. That reached 1,150 likers, and that was with a single penny being spent.

So I thought it would be interesting to put together a bit of a study about my latest posts and check out the reach. This will include boosted posts, and what the payment was, and how many additional likes or comments it gains. Here are the results!

Now I know this is a small handful of statistics, and wouldn't win any study awards, but I think from this small handful that the results are pretty clear. Shared links don't seem to have much impact on facebook at all (at least, not for me!). Images posted will be seen by about 10% of my likers, sometimes more. Engaging posts have the biggest reach at about 20% of my likers, with the most comments, but they tend not to be shared. Boosted posts obviously have the biggest reach, and they also tend to have the most shares, but whether this is because I tend to only boots posts that are 'newsworthy' ie. book sales, new releases or book covers, this may be purely down to the nature of the posts I choose to boost.

I still think facebook is the best way to reach readers via a social network. I have about the same number of followers on twitter as Facebook, yet when I post something on twitter, I'm lucky if I get one or two responses. So, even though Facebook are being money grubbing b****ds, in my opinion, Facebook is still the best way to engage with readers. Even better is if you post things that get your readers involved - asking them opinions about character names, book covers, even plot directions.

Facebook may want your money, but you don't have to give it to them. By asking the right questions, and being engaging, you can still reach the people who like your author page.

What about you? How have you found Facebook's new regime? Do you have any tips for engaging readers on your page? I'd love to hear them!